F&A trade show / Yarnex 2018 Exhibitors express satisfaction over quality of buyers

The textile sector in India is finally showing some signs of recovery after it saw a major hit due to demonetisation, implementation of GST, rupee appreciation and high domestic cotton prices. Rupee depreciation, pick up of domestic demand and progressive policies are helping recovery. The Indian textiles & clothing industry registered a 5.37 per cent export growth during 2017 as against the global export growth of 3.94 per cent. Textiles exports (yarns, fabrics, made-ups) increased by 7.82 per cent in 2017 as compared to 2016. During the year 2017, India was the largest cotton yarn exporting country registering 25 per cent global market share and yarn export increased by 7.21 per cent during this year when compared to 2016.

The yarn market has gained momentum in the recent times and the unsold yarn stock level is one of the lowest in the recent years. Taking advantage of increased fabric demand, the yarn prices have increased to a certain extent since May 2018 when compared to the previous month. The demand for coarse and medium counts especially open-end yarn both in the domestic market and export market has increased considerably and several mills have got advance booking for few months.

Now with the changing market scenario and to cater to buyers demand more effectively, sourcing latest yarn and fabrics play a very important role. Exhibitions are one of the best ways to give live demonstration of latest trends and product developments to the end-users. That is why for providing these under one roof F&A and Yarnex exhibitions were organised recently in New Delhi.

The 18th edition of the F&A Trade Show – Fabrics & Accessories Trade Show along with the 12th edition of Yarnex was held from July 16-18, 2018 at Pragati Maidan. With over 247 exhibitors, and 6,826 visitors from around the globe, the twin-event held in New Delhi, has propelled itself amongst the one of the best B2B business platforms in the series.

The show has progressed tremendously in the last few years; and in terms of exhibitors’ participation the show was bigger this time. F&A Show in Delhi catered to the huge demand from the apparel manufacturing industry, both domestic and exports in the North, Central and Eastern parts of the country. Visitors were extremely pleased at the kind of vendors and products they found at the show. On all the three days of the expo, the visitor flow was unprecedented and the stalls were full with animated discussions. Trade buyers to the F&A Show comprised decision makers and merchandising personnel from buying houses, garment exporters retail chains, apparel brands, wholesalers and distributors, importers, fashion labels and fashion designers amongst others. The 2018 edition delivered better in terms of overall business. A multi-pronged promotion strategy both in India as overseas further improved the overall number of trade visitors to the F&A Show 2018.

Since inception, each and every edition of the F&A Trade Show and Yarnex has grown in scope and stature. F&A Show over the years has become a major event for textile industry players, as here they get a chance to meet genuine high quality buyers, representing a broad spectrum of the supply chain. “Each successful show prods us to do better at the next,” said P Krishnamurthy, CEO & Executive Director, SS Textile Media Pvt. Ltd., organisers of the event. “We ensure that no stone is left unturned to ensure that the show is a success – both for the visitors as well as exhibitors.”

This edition, despite of a little gloomy market scenario, most of the exhibitors expressed their satisfaction over the quality and quantity of buyers visiting the show. However, some of them suggested having a better venue, as several areas in Pragati Maidan were under construction, and also the frequency of shuttle service connecting halls to the various entry gates was less, causing major chaos among the visitors. However, when compared to last two editions, the show was bigger and organised better in terms of infrastructure but many exhibitors also requested organisers to invite more foreign buyers to the same.

In the next few pages we are covering comments of some of the exhibitors who participated in the show…

---

Here we are representing women’s wear division of Arvind Ltd. i.e. Ankur Textiles. We are displaying women’s wear fabrics. Our company is basically based in Ahmedabad and is into high end fashion fabrics like modal, viscose, cotton Lycra blended fabrics which are an alternative to traditional cotton for the new-age Indian woman. These include fabrics like Zoya, Glam and Glory, Blossom, Charm-me and Lilac which can be tailor-made into Western and ethnic womens wear such as dresses, blouses, kurtis and tunics. Our latest collection marks our expansion into multi-fibre fabrics as a fashionable alternative to cotton. We have combined our textiles expertise with path breaking technology to develop smart blends of fabrics that offer style as well as comfort. Our in-house design team will continue to introduce more such trendy collections in future to delight our customers.

---

Basically, we are here to interact with some potential customers. We are making all kinds of yarns for georgette, chiffon, crapes etc fabrics and also the embroidery segment.

Here our collection comprises of 30 denier to 60 denier. These days fashion fabrics like georgette, chiffon, crape etc. are in trend. Particularly, the embroidery which is done by using our yarn which is 120 denier and 600 denier. Our target customers, which included fabric manufacturers and embroiderers, have been to the show. Though in the beginning it was slow but after that footfall was really good. When compared to last edition, the show this time is same, both arrangement and infrastructure wise nothing much has changed. As far as market is concerned, because of GST and demonetization, it was slightly down last year but from this month onwards it has started picking up.

---

This time our focus is on dark indigo but for domestic dealer network it was knits look denim, soft feel knits and peach fabric which are very popular. We have some dark/ very dark indigo denims, which can be washed out to various levels. A single fabric can give you seven-eight different shades. Particularly export brands, even the domestic ones are telling us that they want to concentrate on one fabric and wash it down to seven-eight different shade levels. So, if they use one fabric, there won’t be any issues of minimum order quantities, which with denim is a very big issue. We wanted some domestic brands, buying houses and exporters to visit us here, which happened. Overall, response at the show has been good.

 

---

Since we have expanded our capacities, we are looking at increasing our market share in the domestic market, which was the main reason behind us participating here. Our collection is more towards circular knitting, denims, woven fabrics, and the response has been really good. Target customers including circular knitters and brokers for international markets and also some of our existing customers visited us here. The show is improving every year so response and feedback wise, we are really happy. Last year we increased our capacities from 15 tonne to 25 tonne per day and by this year-end we will be doing 35 tonne per day. As far as market scenario is concerned, it has not stabilized completely after demonetization and GST but it will take few more months to bring everything back on track.”

 

---

The show is going well. Though day-one was a little slow but it picked up really well on day-two and three, during which we got very good response. People from different sectors including both domestic and exporting sectors have visited us. From socks, shawl, sweater, knits sectors people are coming. We are targeting all of them as we are a yarn producer so they all can be our customers. We are displaying all our new products like lots of fancy items including neps, injections, etc. These days speciality products are in trend. The market is improving since last year when compared to lastto- last year. In exports it’s OK but in domestic its little bit slow. Impact of GST and demonization is slowly reducing. We are planning the expansion in knitting sector. The show is satisfactory but we want it to be organized little bit on larger scale and they should also get foreign exhibitors and buyers here.

---

Ours is more than 3 decade old company. Earlier we had only knitting, then garmenting and now we have decided to have our own spinning mills where we can develop new value added products. So, it’s a one stop shop where abuyer can see all the products under one roof. We started this unit with 8,000 spindles, and soon will be adding 20,000 more spindles. We are here to present our latest developments like varieties of Urex, slubs, injections yarn and customers really liked it. When it comes to market scenario, for us there is no effect of GST and demonetization. The reason being we offer value added products and cater as per customers’ requirement. We are into garments export and now concentrating on yarn exports also. The response here is good. It’s a platform where we meet our old friends from industry and different buyers. The show is improving gradually every year and you can see quality footfall all the time.

---

Maral Overseas Ltd, one of India’s largest vertically integrated textile companies. This export led company is a part of the $1114 mn LNJ Bhilwara Group. We have two ultra-modern units to produce 1500 tonne of grey yarn, 125 tonne of dyed yarn, 400 tonne of knitted fabric and 500,000 pieces of garments every month even as we constantly innovate to diversify and upgrade their products. Out of our total production 50 per cent is exported. For our company last year was good in terms of business so we keep moving and developing new product for our customers. We have displayed all types of fabrics here. As far as response is concerned, it’s good as many leading brands have visited our stall.

 

 

---

Our company is no. one in volumes as we manufacture 10mn mtr denim per month. We supply 30 per cent to export and 70 per cent to domestic markets. Our design is our strength and we have all types of collections and categories of codex and denims, we are also into different types of yarn dyed, sulfur and also have knitting. Nowadays, a lot of knitted denim is going into the market. We have different shades of denims also. In terms of trends, we have dobby structure in denims and knits also. In exports stretch percentage is more, so trend keeps on changing. Apart from domestic market we are also planning to increase our exports. Right now market is a bit down. The response at F&A is good as we are getting good enquiries but not ready orders are missing.

 

 

---

As a group we have been spinning the yarn as well as weaving the fabric but main focus of our company has always been regenerated cellulosic manmade fibre, which in comparison to natural fibres are equally bio-degradable. But in the production stage of the fibres itself, they consume very limited energy. In cotton fibre manufacturing, 1 kg of clean cotton fibre requires 10,000 ltr of water, and world’s 35 per cent of pesticides are used in cultivation of cotton. Whereas in producing a viscose, modal, Lyocel water consumption is nearly 200-300 ltr only. In last two seasons Pallavaa has done more than 1,000 tonne of FSC certified viscose. It saves a lot of water, chemicals, time, etc. which are leading the garment into more eco-friendly garment. Leading brands are committed to buying these kinds of eco-friendly products, hence we have got a lot of enquiries for the same. The market in India has been growing in last five years at a very faster pace particularly for this non cotton cellulosic fibre. The growth will be there for next decade. As far as F&A is concerned, as an exhibition, timing and place, it is acceptable, and inside the quality of arrangements may be they can still improve and learn from the international exhibitions, and give more weightage.

---

This is for the first time we are participating in this exhibition and are getting very good response. Basically, we are representing Siyarams Indigo yarn, for which the plant was started just two months back. The plant is equipped with latest state-of-the-art machineries with present capacity of 250 tonne per month, which will be expanding to 500 tonne within next six months. Overall, we are the only company focusing on yarn as the other suppliers here are denim fabric manufacturers, and whatever the extra surplus quantity they are having they are selling into the market. But we don’t have any denim unit or knitting unit and only focusing on Indigo rope dyed yarn. We are taking almost all care in the rope dyeing while dyeing this indigo yarn. All our customers are very happy as within two months we are offering such good quality. We are supplying indigo to almost all apparel and textiles segments. Apart from that we have almost 900 tonne per month capacity of dyeing in which we are doing cotton, PC, PV, space dyed, polyester dyed also, polyester filaments, polyester spun, cotton linens blends and all types of textile yarns and fancy yarns. Response is very good as we are getting very good serious buyers here. Customers are asking us to participate in more such events and bring latest collections every time.

---

Here we have introduced Tencel and Viscose blended with Linen for apparel industry. Due to market demand, we are certified with Oekotex, GOTS and several other standards. Response at the show is good; but it’s more for networking and changing cards, and getting to know our perspective new clients practically. We are catering to export industry so are not affected by GST and demonetization. However, post GST prices of our raw material have gone down, so we were able to increase our sales. We are satisfied with the exhibition but only issue is that they could have chosen a better venue than Pragati Maidan, which is under construction. Otherwise target customers’ flow is good here. As of now, we have increased our capacity by 20 per cent in this financial year and are planning to increase it further next year.

 

---

Ours is 100 per cent sustainable company where we manufacture recycled polyester fibre, mélange yarns, and fabrics & garments. When it comes to recycling, every day we convert 6mn pet bottles into fibres, which gives complete sustainability. We are using sustainable cotton fibres, with most of the brands. Ours is completely mélange yarn company, which we produce around 3,000 tonne of recycled poly fibre every month. We produce 1,800 tonne of mélange yarn. Now, we are entering into all fashion yarns and blending with cotton, natural, synthetic, cellulose, modal blends, linen, etc. sustainability is a big trend with all the brands. Response at the show is going good and we feel if more apparel sourcing brands visit in than it will really double the opportunities for us. The walk-ins are good, but proper sourcing walk-ins have to come. It’s their 3rdedition and we are seeing a lot of improvement when compared to the previous ones.

---

Ambika Knits is one of the leading names in India, in the field of fabric dyeing and processing for knitted fabric industry. With an experience of over 20 years, we have proudly earned a strong reputation for our strict on-time delivery guarantee, quality control and excellent customer service. We are catering to both export and domestic market in high fashion garment segment. Like Viscose, Modals, cotton modals, and very big range of lurex fabrics also. We have recently launched oval yarn, slub yarn with BCI certification. In terms of business last two months have been tough, otherwise whole year had been good for us. We have recently launched our new cotton brand called Nova with better quality and better results for better fabrics. Response is good than last year and weather outside also supported the timings, so footfall to the show have been good. We would like to request the organisers to invite more designers to the show next edition as we have already decided to participate in next year in the same.

---

We are getting a lot of customers here. Many manufacturers are also showing their products and qualities. It is a good platform to interact with buyers and get inputs/ update about market. We are looking forward to Yarnex in long term. Theexhibition is good, but there is a lot of scope for improvement. As of now we are focusing on sustainability, which is one of the themes. We are working on cellulosic blends and new developments in cotton blends. We are working with most of the sustainable fibres and have capacity to make huge range from 60s to 100s which include recycled poly, recycled cotton, recycled nylon, and some of the plant based fibres and most ecofriendly flexes. This is the basically for Autumn-Winter 19 and Spring- Summer 20.In terms of yarns overall spindles are 10 lakh, depending on the size we produce 600 tonne per day. During last one year industry passed through a tough time but we were able to sell to our buyers and suppliers. Though market has improved a lot but impact is still there and will take atleast 4-6 months to stabilize.

---

We are one of the largest spinning mills in India. Today, as a yarn seller we are no. one in India in terms of range of products. We are adding up value added yarns also. Today, we do 300 tonne per day this may scale upto 380/390 tonne per day, out of this 50 per cent is exported and 50 per cent is consumed domestically. Demand for speciality yarns is increasing day-by-day. Commodity items like mélanges, dyed yarns, linen, are increasing. We are growing our capacities; are into very basic and reliable product. Response at the show on day one was poor, but after that improved. This is our third edition here, compared to previous editions the location and organization this time is better. The market is good but the raw material prices have gone up. Last year was good for our company, as we grew a lot during the same.

 

---

Now, another segment of sportswear has opened for us. Of course lingerie and innerwear manufacturers are not there as much but people manufacturing the sportswear are here at F&A and we got good leads from them. So, looking forward to convert them and closing into sales orders. We are displaying range which is used for making sportswear. Unlike other exhibitions where crowd comes, this show is more professional as only serious customers are visiting the same. We would suggest the organizers to keep the good work up. As far as market is concerned, after demonitization and GST, it has not achieved the stability level and is still struggling. Our industry people are unable to compete with countries like Bangladesh, which are having low labour cost and direct FTA’s. so, something has to be done in this regard by the govt.

---

My company is manufacturer of cotton yarns, grey fabrics and made-ups. Until three years back KKP was known for 100 per cent cotton oriented mill, last two years we have ventured into viscose, modal, Tencel, linen, so we are able to get better margins, and organic models. Out of my monthly capacity of 45 lakh mtr, 50 per cent of my production goes for domestic sales and 50 per cent for exports. We have a bed linen division which exports 100 per cent bed linen products to all over the world. As of now, this is our seventh successful year we are participating in F&A show. First day was bit quite but after that there was good walk-ins as we were able to meet some good prominent buyers as well. Market was quite OK but for viscose last two months has been dull, but we are expecting some good orders in forthcoming days. Overall, we are satisfied with this exhibition, but organisers can bring few more customers here.

---

We are one of Northern India’s leading units in terms of schiffli machines based in Gurgaon. We on an average are producing 15-20 thousand mtr of schiffli embroidery fabrics. We have a R&D team which keeps on developing everything on a weekly basis, or as per the demand from the market, so that actually keeps on changing on regular basis. Response at the trade show is like new beginning; every time with lots of customer interaction we get to see the new trends as whatever is there in the market, and develop our ranges accordingly. Overall feedback of the show is good, the organisers have worked really hard. Going forward, we got some leads so hoping for the best. Visitors included local buyers, buying houses, garment exporters, buyers from Sri Lanka, Tirupur, Chennai, Bangalore, Agra, Jaipur, along with Delhi NCR. Market has been a little slow this year but looking at the response, we are expecting good spring summer 2018.

---

Our company was established in 1993, and we are one of pioneers in making mélange yarns and fancy yarns in India. We have 10,000 spindles and making 50,000 kg of yarn daily. We are mostly marketing to all the good companies in India. Most of our marketing strategies are through getting nominations from buying houses, final brands etc. One of our businesses is in knitwear also. We have flat knitting capacities with Shima Seiki machines, which are fully automatic for making fully fashion garments here. There we are making 100,000 pieces per month. In that business we have 60 per cent export and 40 per cent domestic share. We are exporting to Germany, France, UK markets and domestically catering to all big brands in India. Demonetization was a big disturbance for industry but in long run it’s a very good thing to make this industry work with system. Besides, GST has also simplified taxes like anything and we are getting refunds also from services part. These two initiatives are going to benefit this industry a lot in future. As far as the show is concerned, there are a lot of new customers here and the organisers have improved it a lot when compared to last two editions.

---

Our company is from Japan producing yarns, fabrics and other industry products. Here we are providing products from textile divisions Bemberg™ and Roica premium stitch fibre for hosiery, socks, lingerie, sarees etc. Bemberg™ is the main product we are exporting to the Indian market, mainly to Surat for sarees and dupattas and nowadays for Western garments also which are becoming very popular. We are getting good enquiries not only form Surat market but also markets abroad like China, Japan and Europe. We are also developing new qualities to make something new for the Indian market customers. Unfortunately, we are in a big shortage of supply all over the world but that means business is good. When compared to last editions, we are getting more customers this time. Last year there was impact of GST and demonetization on the market. We are yarn manufacturers but this time we have come up with our customers who are displaying the final products with us. Overall, we are getting good no. of enquiries. We are satisfied with this show, but want more weavers and knitters to visit the same as we are mainly a yarn supplier but have received more fabric enquiries which are also welcome but more weaving segment customers should also be there.

---

We are a Noida based Schiffli embroidery company. We have two units equipped with 1,150 machines and are one of the largest based in Delhi NCR. We do a lot of design developments at our own and come out with new range in every six months. This gives an edge to our buyers as they get to provide new developments to their end customers, which one not there in the market. For the trends, applique designs are in the season for coming summer 2019. Last two years have been very difficult for garment industry. But GST is a temporary hiccup and it will always benefit the industry because we are going to get input on all the raw material we are buying, plus whatever we are charging, the customer pays us. Only the liquidity issue is getting hampered because due to GST exporters refund gets delayed but it will be sorted out soon. It’s a positive impact for people like us who are in organized sector. As far as F&A is concerned, I came with very low expectations but the show has been really good. It’s very well organised where seven members from our association SEMA have participated.

---

We are expanding our capacity and making our production double now. As of now we are making 1,500 tonne, and within two months it will be 3,000 tonne per day. We mainly focus on new speciality products and developing some, which may replace cotton yarn i.e. our target. We have come up with a lot of mélange yarns, which are combinations of two yarns. Here at this show, people are more interested in fabrics. We have furnishing fabrics also made with warp knitting machines, and got good response here. This edition more of the routine customers have walked-in from big markets like Panipat, Delhi, Ludhiana, Bhilwara, so overall it’s a good response. Market is going OK, but still some people are not comfortable with GST systems, but I hope by Diwali, market is going to settle. These days polyester market is growing up very fast and exports market is also doing well. China is comparatively very costly as of now, so Indian exporters are going ahead. Hopefully, within fourfive months polyester industry is going to get them money. It’s a good year for us also and should go good further.

---

We manufacture all types of tapes & trims for various brands like satin tapes, cotton tapes, gross grain tapes, spun polyester. We are regularly adding products in every two three months. We are also making specialised tapes as per industry requirement. All our tapes are Oeko-tex certified. We’ve been participating in F&A for last 10 years, and organization wise, response wise and infrastructure wise, the show has been improving every year. These days’ customers are demanding organic cotton tapes, which we have launched here. Besides, we have very smooth tapes for undergarments. The response is good as we got some good enquiries here. Market is still slow and is expected to be good in next coming months.

 

 

---

It’s one of the biggest shows in Delhi for our segment. So, this is very good, as many customers are coming to our stall where we are representing our weaving and home textile products range. Our new products include home textiles different product, organic cotton, and linen and bamboo fabrics. Our production capacity is 3 lakh mtr per month, which are exported majorly to Canada and UK. We are very satisfied with this exhibition. Walkins to the show are really good. The oganisers are doing really good job and we hope to participate in this show’s future editions also. Besides, the market is doing well and many new companies are coming to us with their enquiries.